An Alternate Ending
by julley
Summary: In which Liesel shows Rudy her story and both live to see a new day. An alternate ending to an otherwise perfect book.


BY THE AMPER RIVER

Liesel. Sweet, dear Liesel. She had finally completed her book – the book that covered the little events of her life here in Molching, Himmel Street. However, it still did not feel complete. Not yet, at least. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, and all the pieces had been put in their rightful places except for one. It was a piece that was missing.

And that piece was Rudy.

***** A weather forecast *****

**It was a dreary day, absent of sunshine**

**but abundant with smiles **

The boy and girl were lying on the soft, wavy grass by the Amper River. Trees above them towered like knobbly-kneed soldiers as they casted zigzagged patterns across their faces. Leaves fell from the curved branches and landed around them, wanting to be part of their company.

Liesel had a flower in her hair that particular day. It was a daisy – a daisy given to by Rudy. They lay next to each other as still as a painting, their arms barely touching, and together, they looked up at the sky.

In their eyes, the sky was a watercolour mixture of blue, purple and red. But to me, it was white. It was a mass of white, fluffy clouds, reminding me of the colour of cotton candy that had been littered on the roadside just a few feet away from a child's limp body.

"Rudy," Liesel said in a surprisingly pleasant voice. The sky-gazing had rubbed off some of its gentleness on her. "I just want to stay in this moment forever. Don't you?"

Rudy smirked, but it got wiped off as soon as it came. His hair looked like it had been set ablaze under the red of the sky, lemon drenched in blood. He eventually nodded to the drowning clouds. "I do."

At that moment, Liesel felt a huge swelling in her chest, a sense of love and affection for the boy who had once painted himself black. The boy whom she once sworn she would never kiss. Him. _Rudy._ She suddenly knew what the missing puzzle piece was. It was the need to show her best friend the book she had written about their lives.

Liesel was up and about within seconds. She grabbed and yanked at Rudy's lazy feet, doing everything in her power to get him back to her house at Himmel Street.

"Get up you lazy _Saukerl_! I've got something important to show you!" She hissed.

"But what about 'staying in this moment forever'?"

"Well, I don't want to anymore, understand?"

Rudy grinned, pulling himself up to his feet clumsily. "Understood, Miss Liesel," he said. Then, to himself, he whispered "_Saumensch._"

"Could you repeat that again?" Liesel whipped her head back, strands of hair slicing at her face as they fluttered in the wind.

The boy stuffed his dirt-stained hands down the pockets of his trousers. "Hmm? _What?_ I said nothing!"

All Liesel did in return was glare.

***** Portrait #1 *****

**A girl and a boy,**

**walking away from the Amper River**

THE MISSING PUZZLE PIECE

After dinner with the Hubermanns, Rudy followed Liesel down to the basement where she had worked pain-stakingly on her book. It was darker, much more depressing without Max around. But it had to do.

"What on earth would you show me down here in an empty basement?" Rudy questioned, his face half submerged in the light from the kerosene lamp.

Liesel led him to her workstation – a small paint can for a seat and a larger one for a table. On it sat The Book Thief in all of its handwritten glory. A small smile graced her lips as she picked the book up and brushed away the fresh layer of dust sitting on its cover.

"This," she told him. "This is what I want to show you."

***** Portrait #2 *****

**Both were down in the basement.**

**Both were clad in their pyjamas.**

**Both were crouched over a book – **

**A book called The Book Thief**

Liesel heard the thin pages crackle as they turned under Rudy's gentle hand. She observed the arch of his eyebrows and the lift of his lips when something in her words had amused him. But most of all, Liesel was looking out for a sign. A sign that implied her best friend's enjoyment. She wanted Rudy to love her book, to love her writing.

"So…how is it?" She asked nervously after a little over an hour had passed.

The air reeked of dried paint, which was coated all over the walls and all over Liesel's heart. How much she wished snow would miraculously fill the room up again. She could even imagine Max in a squatting position, patting emphatically on the snowman's head.

Rudy nodded, seemingly impressed. "Not bad, _Saumensch. _Your writing has definitely improved since you came."

Liesel felt a warm bundle of feelings wrapped up nicely in her stomach. But still she did what she would do during normal circumstances, and that was to shove Rudy off his tin can seat.

***** An unfortunate incident *****

**Rudy grabbed Liesel as he fell, **

**and together they hit the ground – hard, **

**just as they would hours later when the bombs fell**

**and the walls around them rumbled and shivered**

**while the rest of the world remained fast asleep.**

"You _Arschloch_! My writing wasn't _that _bad." _It was. _

Liesel rained her fists down on Rudy's chest like an angry cloud, thunder roaring in the form of curses.

However, like the gentleman he was, Rudy took the blows graciously just as he did the day Max Vanderburg returned to Himmel Street and did one last push-up to punch the _Führer right in the eye. He wrapped his arms around Liesel's tiny figure, and together they were intertwined. _

A few minutes soaked by. Liesel stopped. Her arms and hands were sore from beating Rudy up, and she suddenly felt herself quite childish for doing so. She released him and sighed. Rudy could almost spot the little swirls of regret and embarrassment disappearing up into the air.

"I'm sorry, Rudy," she apologised. "Are you okay?"

He flashed a toothy grin. "I shall be nice and forgive you."

Liesel moved to elbow him in the side. She missed. On purpose. "That still makes you an _Arschloch_, you know."

Silence. All Rudy did was to pick The Book Thief up and wave it in front of Liesel's face. "This is great – really," he said in earnest. "Do you mind me staying up to read this?"

"Of course not!" She scoffed. "Go ahead, I'll find something else to do."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Now stop asking me."

Rudy abandoned the paint can and snuggled up against the cold, damp wall of the basement. He could feel the paintings of Max leaping out at him with outstretched arms and pleading eyes. He could feel a lot of things, and one of them was pride for the Hubermanns. They kept a Jew under their house, and they did this out of their hearts. They did not follow the common road.

Oh, how much he wanted to grab Liesel and kiss her at that moment.

***** A hint *****

**He does. **

**After the bombs have been felled **

**along with everyone else **

The two kids each found themselves engrossed in what they were engaging in; the boy reading, the girl writing. Yes, Liesel was writing another book. But it would eventually burn into black ashes like the rest of Himmel Street, and she would never again put another pen to paper. Rosa Hubermann came two steps down into the basement at half past twelve, arms balanced on her wide hips. "Aren't the two of you going to sleep any time soon?!" She scolded.

She was answered with the croaking of frogs and the flutter of birds' wings from outside the pint-sized window. She frowned at the sight before her, but nonetheless, she was tired, and sleep yearned for her. This woman wasn't planning to wait for Rudy to be done so she could make sure he returned home safe.

"_Ich gehe schlafen_!" She told them, waving a fist towards them. "I'm going to sleep! You two better not stay up so late. And I don't want to be responsible for you too, Rudy Steiner."

Rudy's eyes never once strayed from Liesel's words. He was too mesmerised, too amazed of his best friend's growth over the last four years to do so. He did not reply Rosa Hubermann not because he was rude, but because he had finally realised what Liesel's passion was and how good she was at it.

All that answered was Liesel. She lifted her eyes lazily up to her Mama and smiled. "Good night, mama. Help me say goodnight to papa too."

She was saying her final goodbye to them and she didn't even know it.

END OF THE WORLD

It was miles into the night when the first bomb was felled. Neither Liesel nor Rudy had heard it. They were all curled up amidst their own interests. It was only when the walls began shaking and crumbling down with rubble that they dived for each other, fumbling for a pair of hands to find comfort in.

Their fingers linked, and the two scrambled to the small space under the cement staircase – the very same place Max Vanderburg hid from the inspectors. Except this time, Liesel and Rudy were hiding from _me_.

From down in the basement, they heard no shouts or screams or cries. There was only the loud shudder of walls caving in and the high-pitched frequency of the raining bombs.

Liesel clutched tightly onto Rudy's arm, the pricking pain that it brought the only thing that was keeping him from wanting to run to his family next door. To save them all. But it grieves me to say that even if he did runaway, he wouldn't be able to stop fate from barrelling his siblings and Barbara Steiner straight to me.

The children gathered themselves into my arms without a single utter of protest, their eyes still heavy from sleep, whereas the mother was slightly resisting. Barbara glared at me in weak defiance, demanding to see her husband a last time. I told her, "Soon," and ran a hand over her warm eyes to close them shut a last time.

I brought them away, along with everyone else on Himmel Street: Tommy Muller, Frau Holtzapfel, and even the Hitler-loving Frau Diller. They were still fast asleep when I scooped them away. The sirens came much too late. They never had a chance.

Sometimes I would wonder as I went along picking up the stray bodies in their homes, if Hitler's supporters would still love him if they knew he would be the cause of their demise.

Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

***** Portrait #3 *****

**Liesel was scared silly, **

**but Rudy managed to stay calm,**

**and he told her to read. **

"I can't remember any of the words, Rudy," Liesel protested.

He moved closer to her – so close that their heavy breathing swirled up as a single entity, puffs of dirt and dust coughed up from their lungs.

"But I can," he told her. "I'll read to you."

Rudy's voice was the only thing during that point in time that could soothe her worries for her papa and mama – until the bottom of the staircase crumbled onto the ground below and knocked them both unconscious.

***** A real miracle *****

**The rescue squad found them**

**safe and sound. **

**But most importantly, **

**they were the only two **

**on Himmel Street to survive the bombing**

Liesel awoke on the charcoal streets, burning lit snowflakes falling down all around her. She could feel something warm trickling down the side of her forehead, but she didn't care. She couldn't care. The girl staggered to her feet and swayed, searching for anyone she knew amongst the rubble and destruction. Anyone. Please, just anyone would do.

Then, she saw him.

Rudy lay just a few feet away, ashes from the dead bodies and houses coating his thick head of lemony hair. His face was smeared with blood and grime, his eyes closed like a sleeping baby's.

Liesel feared the worst. She crumpled down beside him and began sobbing. Rudy was dead. Rudy was gone. She felt like a knife had just torn her heart in two.

"You _Saukerl_," she said between sobs of anger and despair. "Why did you have to go? Why are you leaving me alone? Godammit, Rudy! Wake up! I love you! Wake up!"

He did not respond, for in Liesel's eyes, his body moved only with the heaving of her chest against his. She believed that his heart had stopped, that he was dead.

After a few moments, Liesel did something she'd sworn never to do: she kissed Rudy's lips. They tasted sweet and ashy, and it almost seemed like she was trying to revive him. But he was no sleeping beauty, and she was no prince.

***** I'd always known Rudy was a prankster *****

**The real truth is that Rudy **

**was indeed alive, **

**and after that first kiss,**

**he wanted to kiss only her lips **

**everyday after.**

When Liesel had finally let go of Rudy and set him back down to sleep together with the rest of Himmel Street, he rose and walked towards her. The boy tapped her shoulder softly, saying that one word.

"_Saumensch_."

Liesel let out a cry of relief right then and there. She could recognise that voice from anywhere. She swirled around and slammed into his arms, squeezing him so tight he couldn't breathe.

"How dare you joke around with me!" She murmured into his shoulder. "I almost died when I thought you were dead."

Rudy laughed, though it was more a mixture of sadness rather than humour. "Well, it's just that I really wanted that kiss."

***** A note from yours truly *****

**At least they had each other**

**to help cushion the unrelenting blow**

**of deaths**

And it was true.

Liesel would be able to find comfort in his arms and Rudy, in hers, for the rest of their lifetime and beyond.


End file.
